TENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS AT NORTH LANDS CREATIVE GLASS
Janusz Pozniak: Conference Demo 2006
Tenth Anniversary Report
This summer marks the tenth anniversary of North Lands Creative Glass in Lybster and there is plenty to celebrate. Two exhibitions in Edinburgh have already opened to mark the occasion. One is at the Scottish Gallery link in Dundas Street, where the work of eleven artists who have been associated with North Lands either as masters, residents or students, is on sale. Both the artists and the gallery have been generous, offering to donate part of the sale proceeds to North Lands which is a registered Scottish Charity. The other exhibition is in the main exhibition gallery of the National Museum of Scotland link in Chambers Street. Here sixty pieces from the growing collection of North Lands are on display in a specially designed setting that recreates the atmosphere of Caithness. The exhibition has already been acclaimed by visitors and critics alike as a major success. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated hard back catalogue (available from North Lands, price £15) link and also on sale in the museum shop in Edinburgh.
Here in Caithness celebrations have been under way with a very special tenth anniversary summer programme of Master Classes as well as the widely acclaimed annual conference held in Lybster. Record numbers attended our tenth conference on the weekend of the 2nd September. The Portland Arms Hotel was more or less taken over by visitors, bed and breakfast facilities in the village and the vicinity were fully occupied by the visitors to North Lands. Local traders welcomed the influx and visitors, some of whom travelled to the conference from far flung destinations such as Japan, the United States and Australia already know to make a beeline to David Mackay on the High Street in Lybster, whose meat pies are legendary among the glass community worldwide!
Old friends and new gathered in Lybster, either as masters or as students at the conference and at the Master Classes. Dante Marioni, one of the best glass blowers in the world, based in Seattle in the United States, taught a full class of enthusiasts. He seldom teaches these days, making North Lands one of the rare places where he enjoyed doing so. He feels the place has a very special magic. This is his second visit to Caithness after an absence of five years. Tessa Clegg is another old friend, returning to Lybster where for some years she was the artistic director of North Lands Creative Glass. In the intervening years she won the coveted Jerwood Prize and has exhibited her work all over the world. She invited the distinguished British Potter Carol McNicoll, a friend and colleague, to teach a Master Class with her this year. Alison Kinnaird, well known in Scotland as much for her playing of the harp as for her glass engraving skills, is returning to Lybster (which she visited as a Master Class student three years ago). This time she led her own Master Class and thrilled us all with a harp recital during the conference. Michael Brennand Wood, a British Textile artist, had his first visit to North Lands, completing the distinguished list of this year's masters at North Lands Creative Glass.
With time North Lands has become loved and celebrated both at home and abroad by visitors of all ages, starting with primary school students and their teachers to senior citizens. All of them warm to the friendly atmosphere of the North Lands experience, whether they are beginners or professionals. They talk of being captivated by the landscape and special light and by the magic of Caithness with its mix of ancient history to be discovered among the archaeological sites and modern ideas in glass as taught at the Alistair Pilkington Workshop in Lybster. North Lands activities involve both visits from distinguished international artists and close interaction with the local community.
Later this year the birthday celebrations continue with an exhibition devoted to the work of artists who have been associated with North Lands at SOFA Chicago in November (November 9-13). SOFA (which stands for Sculpture, Objects, Fine Art) a major art fair staged twice yearly, once in New York and once in Chicago. The exhibition at SOFA will be staged by Bullseye, a glass manufacturer in Portland, Oregon, which has actively supported North Lands for the past five years. Its owners Lani McGregor and Dan Schwoerer now have a home in Caithness and Lani recently joined the board of directors of North Lands Creative Glass. The last major piece of good news is that on September 1st our new Chief Executive, Peter Aldridge arrivved from the United States. He first visited North Lands in 2005 as a Master Class leader and attended this years conference prior to settling in Caithness with his wife Jane, to take up his new post. He is returning to Britain after twenty seven years spent in the States where he earned himself a reputation as one of the pillars in the glass community.
Janusz Pozniak - (cont)
For any further information, please contact:
North Lands Creative Glass
Quatre Bras, Lybster
Caithness, KW3 6BN
SCOTLAND
Telephone and Fax: +44 (0)1593 721 229
e-mail: info@northlandsglass.com
